I tried to read this news about "hate crime policy", but I must admit I cannot follow what they are talking about. I wonder if you can make something out of it. The quote in bold is found at the bottom of the page. Now if the UNLV educators are advocating "academic freedrom" in part, saying that "freedom to say anything" which means to Peck as "people need to feel free to say studpid things" for the sake of speaking for speaking per se but stupid anyway is normal.

"Our argument is, in an academic environment, people need to feel free to say stupid things," continues Peck.
"That's what free speech is all about. That's what academic freedom is about."

UNLV staff spars over hate crime policy

Updated: May 5, 2009 06:05 PM PDT

It was nearly one year ago that University Regents asked colleges to develop a plan regarding how to deal with hate crimes. But, as News 3's Hetty Chang reports, less than two months before UNLV plans to adopt the policy, controversy surrounding it is heating up.

It's the type of environment that encourages the free exchange of ideas. But on UNLV's campus, some fear their right to speak freely is being silenced.

A working draft of a "Hate Crimes Policy," as requested by the Board of Regents of all universities, encourages UNLV students who think they've been a victim of a hate crime to report it to police. However, it also states that some who is the target of "bias" should do the same.

Now, Professor Brian Spangelo is taking issue with the university's plan.

"This policy really attacks the bedrock of academic freedom on university campuses," he explains. "I might mention that embryonic tissue is the best place to find the cells that would be best for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Possibly, a student could be offended by that. One of the options on the policy is to call the police."

And the Nevada ACLU says that is clearly unconstitutional.

"The policy that we looked at not only did that - not only seemed to want to criminalize unpopular, even offensive, even insulting, even discomforting speech - it created a process where people are being encouraged to go report that to police. That's highly problematic," says Gary Peck.

This controversy led UNLV President Dr. David Ashley to create a four-member task force to reevaluate the policy. But one member of the task force is UNLV Vice President of Diversity Christine Clark, someone Professor Spangelo and others say ignored their concerns in the first place.

"I'm very sorry that people feel like they haven't been heard. I think that we've taken great steps to try to deal with that."

Clark says that statements like the stem cell example Professor Spangelo gave do not constitute bias under the proposed policy; she says controversial statements encourage the very issue at debate here: freedom of speech - something Clark says she supports.

"I think it's part of how we learn and engage."

Clark and the task force now have to decide whether to revise the police or, like some want, start from scratch and rewrite the entire document.

"Our argument is, in an academic environment, people need to feel free to say stupid things," continues Peck. "That's what free speech is all about. That's what academic freedom is about."

UNLV President Dr. David Ashley wants the task force to agree on a final policy by June 1 and wants the policy to take effect in July.